ATS3077 - Whatever happened to truth?: French literature, thought and visual culture - 2019

Many people today say there is no one 'truth' that holds for all people in all places at all times, or that none of us can really be sure of life's 'meaning' in an absolute sense. But just a century ago the story would have been very different. So what happened between our great grandparents' generation and ours to revolutionise the way we think about truth and meaning? This is the question that sparks our journey through French culture in this unit. With concrete examples and clear case-studies we will walk in the shoes of film-makers, writers, artists and thinkers as they wrestle with questions of truth and meaning in the rapidly changing twentieth century world, questions that have all-too immediate implications: How should I live my life in a world without certainties? What, if anything, gives my life meaning? And what is left worth fighting for, living for, dying for?

On successful completion of this unit, students can expect to have

1. Gained an informed knowledge of key aspects of French literature, thought and visual culture in the twentieth century as they relate to themes of truth and meaning;
2. Improved their reading and analytical skills, and acquired skills in analysing works of visual culture in terms of recognising and understanding features specific to the themes of the unit;
3. Gained a clearer understanding of the importance and nature of questions of truth and meaning today through having studied the evolution of those questions in France over the past century;
4. Built skills of self-reflexive questioning in relation to the material studied;
5. Developed an ability to relate ideas to their literary or visual expression;
6. Developed skills in written and oral argument and presentation so as to present the analyses and understandings above.

   Students taking the third-year version of this unit (ATS3077) will be expected to demonstrate in their text analysis and their essay a more explicit and sophisticated understanding of theoretical concepts germane to the analysis of the texts studied

Within semester assessment: 100%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

French studies